After capturing Belgrade in 1521, Suleyman the Magnificent (1520–1566) did
not hesitate to launch an attack against the weakened Kingdom,
whose smaller (approximately 26 000 compared to 45,000 strong),
badly led army was defeated on 29 August 1526 at the Battle of
Mohács. Thus he became influential in Hungary, while his
semi-vassal, named John I Zápolya and
his enemy Ferdinand I both
claimed the throne of Hungary. Suleyman went further and tried to
crush Austrian forces, and laid siege to Vienna in 1529, but failed to take that city
after the onset of winter forced his retreat. The title of king of
Hungary was disputed between Zápolya and Ferdinand until 1540.
After the seizure of Buda by the
Turks in 1541, the West and North recognized a Habsburg as king
("Royal
Hungary"), while the central and southern counties were
occupied by the Sultan and the east was ruled by the son of Zápolya
under the name Eastern Hungarian Kingdom
which after 1570 became the Principality of Transylvania.

During the Ottoman rule, peace was fragile: the Habsburgs
pursued plans to liberate the land from the Muslim invaders, and to
promote the Counterreformation with the help of agents.
Using Ottoman Hungary as their base, the Ottomans attempted to use
this religious division of their Christian opponents in 1620, and
again in 1683 when they laid siege to Vienna for the second time.

In these times, Hungary began to undergo changes. Vast lands
remained unpopulated and covered with woods. Flood plains became
marshes. The life of the Turkish occupiers was unsafe. Peasants
fled to the woods and marshes, forming guerilla bands, the Hajdú
troops. Eventually, Hungary was a drain on the Ottoman Empire,
swallowing much of its revenue which was spent on the maintenance
of a long chain of border forts. However, some parts of the economy
flourished. In the huge unpopulated areas, townships bred cattle
that were herded to South Germany and northern Italy. In some years the number of exported
cattle reached 500,000 animals. Wine was traded to the Czech lands, Austria and Poland.

But in the end continuous wars, Turkish rule and Habsburg
repression ruined the country.

Administration

Turkish soldiers in Ottoman Hungary

The territory was divided into Sanjaks (provinces), with the highest ranking
Ottoman official being the Pasha
of Buda. Pashas and Sanjak-Beys were responsible for
administration, jurisdiction and defense. The Ottomans' only
interest was to secure their hold on the territory. The Sublime Porte (a term used to designate the
Ottoman rulers) became the sole landowner and managed about 20
percent of the land for its own benefit, apportioning the rest
among soldiers and civil servants. The new landlords were
interested mainly in squeezing as much wealth from the land as
quickly as possible. Of major importance to Istanbul was the
collection of taxes. Taxation left little for the former landlords
to collect; Most of the nobility and large numbers of burghers
emigrated into the Habsburg "Royal Hungary" province. Wars,
slave-taking, and the emigration of nobles who lost their land
caused a depopulation of the countryside. However, the Turks
practiced religious tolerance and allowed the various ethnicities
living within the empire significant autonomy in internal affairs.
Towns maintained some self-government, and a prosperous middle
class developed through artisanry and trade.

Culture

Despite the continuous warfare with the Habsburgs, several
cultural centres sprang up in this far corner of the Empire.
Examples of Ottoman architecture of the
classical period, seen in the famous centers of Istanbul and Edirne, were also seen in Hungary, where
mosques, bridges, fountains, baths and schools were built
(unfortunatelly, after the Habsburg conquest, most of these works
were destroyed. Few survived to this day). The introduction of the
Turkish Baths with the building of the Rudas Baths, was the
starting point of a long tradition in Hungary. No less than 75
hammams (steam baths) were built during the Turkish
age.

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Muslim
schools

In the seventeenth century, 165 elementary (mekteb)
and 77 secondary and academic theological schools (medrese) were operating in 39 of the
major towns of the province. The elementary schools taught writing,
basic arithmetics, and the reading of the Qur'an and of the most important prayers. The
medreses carried out secondary and academic training
within the fields of Muslim religious sciences, Church law and Natural
sciences. Most medreses operated in Buda, where there
were twelve. In Pécs there
were five medreses, Eger and Eszék
each had four. The most famous medrese in Ottoman Hungary
was that of Buda, built by the BosnianSokollu Mustafa
Pasha during his seventeen years of governing (1566-1578).

In the mosques, people not
only prayed, but were taught to read and write, to read the Qur'an,
and prayers. The sermons were the most effective form of political
education. There were numerous elementary and secondary schools
besides the mosques, and the monasteries of the Dervish orders also
served as centers of culture and education. The spread of culture
was supported by the libraries. The school library of Sokollu
Mustafa Pasha in Buda, contained, besides Muslim religious
sciences, other literature, works on oratory, poetry, astronomy,
music, architecture, and medical sciences.

Religion

The Ottomans practiced religious tolerance, and hence
Christianity was not prohibited. However, there were large numbers
of converts to Islam, who,
alongside the ~80,000 Muslim settlers, contributed to the
constantly growing Muslim minority. The religious life of the
Muslims was supervised by the mosques that were either newly built or
transformed from older Christian churches. Payment for the servants
of the mosques, as well as the maintenance of the churches, was the
responsibility of the Ottoman state or charities.

Besides orthodox Islam, a large number of dervish communities also flourished. The most
important ones were the bektashis, the halvetis, and the mevlevis. The famous Gül Baba monastery of
Buda, sheltering 60 dervishes, belonged to the bektasi
order. Situated close to the janissaries camp, it
was built by Jahjapasazáde Mehmed Pasha, the third begler
bey (governor) of Buda. The türbe (mausoleum) in Budapest of the famous
dervish and poet Gül Baba is to this day the
northernmost site of Islamic pilgrimage.

Another famous monastery of its time was that of the
halveti dervishes. Built around 1576 next to the türbe of
Sultan Süleyman I the Magnificent (1520-1566) in Szigetvár, it soon
became the religious and cultural centre of the area. A famous
prior of the zavije (monastery) was the Bosnian Sejh Ali
Dede. The monastery of Jakovali Hassan Pasha in Pécs was another
famous location. Its most outstanding prior was Mevlevian dervish
Pecsevi Árifi Ahmed Dede, a Turk and native of Pécs.